Silvanus only spoke softly in his mind: ["Anyway, from now on I'll call you Nine. So Nine, please respond if you can hear what I'm saying."]

Nine: ["Beep—"]

Silvanus: [...] Is it really necessary to conserve energy this much?

Silvanus didn't think much more about it and began paying attention to the situation outside. At this moment, some people had already flipped over their cards to examine them, while others were still hesitating, unsure whether they should go outside or not.

"Anyway, there's already a heavy snowstorm outside. We should wait for the rescue team instead..." a petite girl couldn't help but speak up. The timidity in every tremor of her voice was easy to notice.

The tall, fierce-looking man frowned when he heard that and said coldly, "Get lost. Don't butt in."

Even though he said that, he didn't rush outside either. There was no way he would walk into danger alone; at the very least, he had to bring a few people along in case something happened.

"Staying here forever isn't a solution. Who knows when the kidnapper will come back? Are you all planning to just sit here and wait for death?!"

Someone else couldn't help saying, "That's right. Whoever managed to gather all of us here at the same time definitely isn't simple..."

But clearly, there were also people who sensed the strangeness of this situation.

Nick suddenly said softly, "It's not kidnapping. I clearly remember that before appearing here, I had a heart attack. I even heard the sound of the ambulance. Based on the doctor's judgment, I probably didn't have much time left to live..."

Nick spoke slowly. When he lifted his head, his gaze happened to meet Silvanus's. He paused for a moment, then instinctively said, "Actually, it doesn't hurt that much. I'm used to it. That was just what I was thinking..."

The comments in Silvanus's livestream instantly became lively.

[What's this, what's this? I noticed that young guy has been staring at my husband the whole time!]

[hihihiihihi]

[He's pretty cute, but our baby's face is really expressionless]

[Did everyone forget he's a single dad?]

[So what?]

[I'm pretty curious about that young guy's identity—climbing the wall to take a look.]

The comments on every side were extremely lively, the viewer count rising and falling unpredictably. However, most of them were currently gathered in the tall, fierce-looking man's livestream. They were truly looking forward to watching him run toward "freedom."

But Nick's sudden words had clearly awakened many people's memories. They couldn't help but pause, and then it seemed as if they all thought of something at the same time. Their expressions inevitably changed.

The tall man also seemed to realize something; the fierce look on his face grew even uglier. Just as he was about to speak, the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from the staircase, drawing everyone's attention.

"Clack, clack, clack, clack..."

The figure, illuminated by candlelight, swayed continuously. In this tightly sealed castle without the slightest gap, every sound seemed to echo in a frightening way.

The others instinctively returned to their seats. The series of strange events had clearly frightened them, making their hearts tense up instinctively.

Seeing this, the tall man hurried back as well. However, the round table was quite large, and his seat was rather far away.

"Move!"

Without the slightest hesitation, he shoved the somewhat frail girl aside and sat down in her seat.

The girl felt dissatisfied but didn't dare say anything. She could only hurry back to her own place, but it was already too late—the figure had fully appeared.

A straight back, a tailcoat suit, gold-rimmed glasses, and a long beard neatly trimmed down to the neck. Even the hair at the back was tied with black silk.

The elderly butler was holding a boy about five or six years old in his arms, smiling kindly as he looked over everyone.

His somewhat aged and cloudy eyes fell on the petite young girl who was still standing stiffly to the side. The corner of his lips curved slightly as he smiled gently. "Everyone would do well not to run around in this place."

Seeing that it wasn't some axe-wielding murderer who could split their heads open at any moment, the young girl let out a breath of relief and hurried back to her seat—or rather, the original seat of that tall man.

At the same time, the butler set the boy in his arms down. He patted the boy lightly on the back and reminded him once more with a smile, "Don't run around in the castle..."

The boy said nothing and simply ran off quickly.

Silvanus instinctively followed the boy with his gaze, but the more he looked, the more his expression changed.

No way… why did he feel like this kid was running straight toward him?

Of course, Silvanus wasn't mistaken. That little black head with slightly curly hair ran straight into his thigh. The child's hands grabbed onto his pants, then he suddenly looked up, revealing an unmistakable pair of emerald-green eyes.

Under everyone's watchful gaze, the child—who looked about fifty percent similar to Silvanus—opened his mouth and called out:

"Daddy."

Silvanus: "..." I don't even have a wife yet.

The butler standing to the side also reminded them very seriously, "Is this your son? Please keep a close eye on him. Our master truly dislikes being disturbed."

Silvanus parted his lips as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. He only felt a bit puzzled—would he really bring his own son to a dangerous place to participate in some game whose nature was still unknown? Could it be that he was so poor that he couldn't entrust anyone else to take care of him?

Thinking of this, Silvanus couldn't help pausing for a moment, because he suddenly felt that this speculation actually made quite a lot of sense.

Meanwhile, the others also noticed that Silvanus was the only one without a card, and also the only one who had a "relative" here. They couldn't help but wonder whether Silvanus was the same as them or not.

[Oh my god, that face really inherited all the father's best features!]

[Call mom, kid!]

[No, call papa instead!]

[I want to eat both of them.]

[So adorable, I really hope this child doesn't have a problem with his papa moving on to the next relationship.]

Silvanus didn't notice the excitement in the comments at all. His thoughts had already drifted elsewhere. But right at that moment, his thigh was suddenly tugged a little.

Silvanus looked down, only to see the child gazing up at him, eyes watery and expectant. "Carry..."

Silvanus: "..." alright, it's not like that's something difficult.

He directly lifted the child onto his lap. The little boy immediately wrapped his arms around Silvanus. His eyes curiously looked around, and just then he happened to see a pair of ordinary brown eyes staring straight at him.

The boy couldn't help frowning slightly.

Seeing this, Nick instinctively tensed up, but before he could react, the child suddenly stuck out his tongue, then turned his head and buried his face into Silvanus's chest, his arms tightly hugging Silvanus without letting go.

Nick: "..." what a brat.

Comment section:

[I get it now. Looks like this kid is very opposed to his daddy taking the next step in life.]